*Went missing after she left for work: How Kirti Vyas in May 2018*

Search operations launched by police for the body of Kirti Vyas (inset) in May 2018 (with  Photo by Sanjeev Pandey)

On March 16, 2018, 28-year-old Kirti Vyas, a finance manager at BBlunt salon in Andheri, set off for work around 8.50 am from her residence in South Mumbai.

She was supposed to take the 9.11 am train from Grant Road to Andheri in the western suburbs.

That was the last day Kirti's family members saw her. Six years after she went missing, two of Kirti's colleagues were convicted Monday for murdering her.

On March 16, 2018, around 11.30 am, Kirti's mother attempted to contact her to know the WiFi password of their home Internet connection, to share it with a relative. However, Kirti's phone was switched off. Assuming she was busy at work, Kirti's mother did not call her again. However, when Kirti did not return home by the usual time, her family attempted to reach her, but both her phone numbers remained unreachable. They contacted her HR Manager at B-Blunt, who confirmed that Kirti had not reported to work that day.

In a bid to aid the family, Kirti's manager enlisted the help of two colleagues, one of whom was Siddhesh Tamhankar, Kirti's junior at B-Blunt. The following day, the two colleagues visited Grant Road railway station to inquire if any regular commuters had seen Kirti. Simultaneously, the police began reviewing CCTV footage for clues. However, Kirti was not spotted at Grant Road or Andheri railway stations, and the building's CCTV indicated she had left around 8:55 a.m.

Kirti, a qualified chartered accountant and law graduate, had joined B-Blunt's accounts department in 2012. B-Blunt, co-founded by Adhuna Bhabani, a celebrity hairstylist and former wife of actor-producer-director Farhan Akhtar, requested Akhtar and other celebrities to utilise social media in the quest for information on Kirti.

Later, Tamhankar disclosed a crucial detail to his colleagues and to the police about the day Kirti went missing. He claimed that he and another female colleague were en route to South Mumbai that day and offered Kirti a lift to work, which she initially accepted but later declined, expressing concern about traffic delays.

When questioned by police about the delay in revealing this information, Tamhankar cited his relationship with the colleague, who was married, as the reason for his silence.

The police alleged that Kirti had reprimanded Tamhankar at work for accounting errors and issued a warning, sparking suspicion. However, lacking concrete evidence against Tamhankar, the police continued their investigation for 50 days.

On May 6, 2018, the police claimed a breakthrough when a blood stain discovered in the car driven by the female accused matched Kirti's parents' DNA. Subsequently, Tamhankar and the female colleague were arrested. The police asserted that the pair engaged in a confrontation with Kirti after picking her up near her residence on March 16, 2018, resulting in her strangulation and subsequent disposal of her body in a creek in Wadala. Despite extensive search efforts using drones, local fishermen, and other means, no trace of Kirti was found. The police alleged that the accused were aware of tidal movements, preventing the body from resurfacing.